


What You Leave Behind

by idrilhadhafang



Series: Rogue One Lives [1]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Destruction of Alderaan (Star Wars), F/M, Fix-It, Hurt/Comfort, Jyn Erso Needs A Hug, Jyn Erso-centric, Past Character Death In The Form Of Galen Erso, Protective Cassian Andor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-14 00:56:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29660001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: Jyn wakes up in a Rebel medbay.
Relationships: Cassian Andor/Jyn Erso
Series: Rogue One Lives [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2179563
Comments: 3
Kudos: 24
Collections: Allbingo, Bad Day Collection





	What You Leave Behind

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Deus Ex Machina
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.

It was waking in the medbay that Jyn looked around, trying to take in her new surroundings. She couldn’t say that she was used to a medbay. At least, not something so fresh-looking and so clean.   
  
“What happened?” she managed to croak out. Her lips were cracked. She could feel them bleeding, actually.   
  
The medical droid spoke. “We just managed to pick you up from the beaches of Scarif.”  
  
Jyn laughed, a bit sharply, then winced. “That’s a bit convenient.” Then, “Cassian Andor...is he all right? How about Chirrut and Baze and Bodhi?”  
  
“Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus were injured in battle by the Death Troopers,” said the medical droid. “They should at least face recovery, as luckily we got to them while they were able to be saved. Bodhi Rook was placed in a bacta tank for recovery.”  
  
“So they’re all right,” Jyn said. “And Cassian?”  
  
She hadn’t expected to grow so attached to Cassian Andor in that moment. When she’d first started on the mission with him, it had been an uneasy alliance. Cassian was devoted to duty, sharp — Jyn was just doing what she could to survive.   
  
“Alive,” said the medical droid.   
  
Jyn could not say that she was expecting to have become so attached to Cassian. There had been that near-miss in the turbolift, the way he looked at her lips like he wanted to kiss them. Jyn couldn’t say she’d had such experiences before, even and especially in Saw’s cadre.   
  
Cassian was asleep. She was struck, at least in that moment, by how battered he looked (they both had looked battered when they’d stumbled out onto Scarif’s beaches), but somehow...relieved. Like he had done his duty. Everything was all right.   
  
***  
  
Cassian did wake, and due to them being constricted by their injuries (much to Jyn’s frustration), they mostly talked. Cassian told her a bit about his family, how he had ended up with the Rebellion in the first place.   
  
“I wasn’t a child soldier,” he said. “Not really. My experiences with the Clone Wars mostly involved throwing things at the enemy.”  
  
“Not even grenades?”  
  
Cassian snorted. “No.”  
  
They were different, both of them. And yet they had certain similarities, Jyn and Cassian. They had both been effectively forced to do what they had to to survive. And Cassian...he was rough around the edges, but he had at least tried to spare Galen Erso’s life.   
  
It was mostly bad luck that had taken her father out.   
  
Jyn told him about her father. Told him about the small details — his laugh, his smile, his impossibly big heart that seemed to have compassion for basically every being. And Cassian listened, clearly struck by her words.   
  
“There’s so much I didn’t know about him,” he said.  
  
“He was brilliant,” Jyn said. “One of the most brilliant men I knew.”  
  
She remembered him all too clearly. She remembered how he was as he lay dying on the rain-soaked platform on Eadu. She remembered his last message to her. The anger that she felt that was really covering up for an all too powerful grief.   
  
She felt the tears pricking at her eyes again. The tears that threatened to spill over. She almost pictured a tsunami rising from Scarif’s oceans, Scarif’s beaches, sweeping away everything in its path.   
  
She’d been holding a lot of things in.   
  
Cassian didn’t say anything. He reached out to her, touches her hand, and there was something about that one touch, that one gesture, that was comfort enough.   
  
***  
  
It’s later that they heard cheering throughout the Rebel Base. Bodhi, Chirrut and Baze, who were awake now and making a recovery, winced at the noise.   
  
Baze spoke. “Can’t they at least shut up while the group of us are trying to rest?”  
  
“Baze, peace.” There was something about Chirrut’s presence where Jyn swore that he could keep Baze in check. “I can feel them. The Death Star’s been destroyed. Skywalker’s won.”  
  
Jyn turned to Cassian in amazement. Then, “He...did it?”  
  
Cassian nodded. “Apparently. No idea how he found that weakness your father put in, but...”  
  
Jyn didn’t outright hug Cassian. But she grinned. Because Skywalker, whoever he was, finished the fight. The Death Star was vanquished and Galen Erso’s work carried out.   
  
Rogue One began it, and Skywalker, Organa and the others...they finished the job.   
  
***  
  
Princess Leia visited them later. She was dressed in pale Alderaan clothing, and she looks...well, as put together as one can be, Jyn thought, after that.   
  
“The group of you did beautifully,” she said. “Without you, we wouldn’t have gotten this far.”  
  
“Thank you, Princess,” Cassian said.   
  
"Leia. Just call me Leia.” Leia turned to look at Jyn. “After all you’ve done...when you’re fully recovered, I am wondering how you would feel about medals for your efforts."  
  
Jyn almost wanted to laugh in surprise. A medal? She was just a woman who was previously on the run. She wasn’t a hero. And yet...  
  
“It was for my father,” Jyn said. “I don’t think medals will be necessary.”  
  
“I heard about your father. What he did.” Then, “Jyn,” Leia said, “The Rebellion’s been thinking of making a memorial to him. This...all this wouldn’t have happened if not for him.”  
  
Jyn almost felt the tears welling up again. But instead, she nodded. Then, “He deserves it,” she says. “He never would have given himself credit in life, but he deserves credit now.”  
  
Leia nodded. Then, “You aren’t alone in losing a father, Jyn.”  
  
She left.   
  
Chirrut explained. “I felt Alderaan’s destruction while I was in recovery,” he said. “Bail Organa was her father. He died there.”  
  
“Oh, stars...”  
  
“It was why the Death Star was destroyed,” Chirrut said. “Visas Marr once said about defeating her master, Darth Nihilus, that what happened was not done for the sake of hate or vengeance. It was for the sake of all life. Force users in general hold all life sacred. The Death Star...it has its own casualties, unfortunately. Some of which were innocent people.” A sigh. “War is terrible. Unfortunately, this is very much a necessary war.”  
  
Jyn thought of the beach on Scarif. When she and Cassian had stumbled there, so certain that they would meet their end there. Looking at each other, Jyn allowing a slight smile to quirk her lips.   
  
_“Your father would be proud.”_  
  
“I think we should stay,” she said. “We have a lot of work to do.”  
  
***  
  
It was later, when they were out of medbay, that they had the medal ceremonies. Cassian — Jyn swore that he was looking at her in her white ceremony dress like he’d never seen anything more beautiful in his life. (Then again, they all looked different, she thought, in formal wear)  
  
They would have time for their sorrows later. Time to mourn those who were killed pointlessly, and those who gave their lives so others might live. It was entwined, in a way, that commemoration of death, that celebration of life.


End file.
